KYIV, Ukraine —

       Rescuers began to pull survivors Thursday from the rubble of a nighttime airstrike on a theater where more than 1,000 people had sheltered in the besieged port city of Mariupol, as Russia’s war on Ukraine entered its fourth week with no sign of a respite.

       The death toll at the red-roofed building in Mariupol, which satellite images showed had the word “children” written on the ground outside to try to deter an attack, was still unknown. But an official from the city said there were at least 130 survivors among those huddled inside for protection.

       “After a terrible night of uncertainty on the 22nd day of war, finally good news from Mariupol! The bomb shelter survived,” another official from the area, Ukrainian lawmaker Sergiy Taruta, wrote on Facebook. “People are coming out alive!”

       President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an early-morning video that he believed Russian troops “purposefully” targeted the building.

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       Waging war, wielding words: Zelensky’s speeches have made him a folk hero

       Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s virtual appearance before the U.S. Congress was just the latest in a series of rousing addresses.

       “Our hearts are broken by what Russia is doing to our people, to our Mariupol,” he said of the southeastern city on the Sea of Azov, which has been one of the worst hit of the war and is surrounded by enemy forces. Local officials say more than 2,400 people have died and tens of thousands more are struggling to survive without running water, power or much food. Deputy Mariupol Mayor Sergei Orlov said this week that “no building is undamaged” in the city of 446,000.

       In the capital, Kyiv, residents woke to what has become a depressing routine: reports of death and damage at another residential building following a Russian assault. This time it was by indirect fire: Ukrainian air-defense officials said they intercepted a Russian missile, which then fell in front of high-rises in the southeastern district of Darnystky.

       Residents throw out debris from an apartment building that was damaged when an intercepted Russian missile fell to ground, Ukrainian authorities said.

       (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

       The blast killed one person and wounded three others, authorities said, and 30 residents were evacuated from the worst-hit tower. The explosion’s impact could be seen all over the block, with at least eight building facades damaged.

       By late morning, those who remained fought cold temperatures and powerful gusts as they tried to clear debris. One family carried a load of glass shards and twisted metal in a bedsheet to the nearby trash bin. Others queued to get large sheets of transparent, tarp-like materials to use as temporary cover.

       Ukrainian officials Thursday were also assessing the war’s toll in Chernihiv, 90 miles northeast of Kyiv, where at least 10 civilians were killed while waiting in a bread line, the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv said Wednesday. In a Facebook post, Viacheslav Chaus, the head of the Chernihiv regional administration, said the overall death toll in the city was far greater.

       “The enemy is exposing the city to systematic artillery and airstrikes, destroying the civilian infrastructure of Chernihiv. Over the past 24 hours, 53 bodies of victims killed by the Russians have been brought to the morgue,” Chaus said.

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       Read the full text of Ukraine President Zelensky’s address to Congress

       Ukrainian President Zelensky’s address to Congress was simultaneously translated into English by his interpreter. Here is the full text.

       The Ukrainian government said there were artillery and airstrikes elsewhere in the country overnight, including the eastern town of Avdiivka. In the southern city of Mykolaiv, which is controlled by Ukraine, fighting continued as Russian forces attempted to enter in a bid to establish a swath of control along the Azov and Black seas.

       The Kyiv suburbs of Kalynivka and Brovary, northeast of the capital, also saw shelling overnight as Ukrainian forces attempted a counteroffensive against Russians around Kyiv and claimed to have shot down 10 Russian planes and missiles. The claim could not be independently verified.

       The fighting came as a fourth day of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine were set to take place via video conference. Earlier, representatives for both countries said talks were progressing.

       “We have much confidence that we will have a cease-fire in coming days,” Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Zelensky, said in a “PBS NewsHour” interview Wednesday. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said talks have taken on a “business-like spirit.”

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       A funeral for Ukraine soldiers brings war to small town

       Ukraine is burying its dead. The bodies of service members killed in the conflict with Russia are returning to hometowns throughout the country. Residents pay last respects.

       Moscow has not commented on a cease-fire.

       Podolyak said he believes Russia will sign an agreement because its forces have been unable to take Kyiv and have made limited inroads since successfully invading eastern and southern areas weeks ago. On Thursday, the British government echoed part of Podolyak’s analysis.

       “Russian forces have made minimal progress on land, sea or air in recent days and they continue to suffer heavy losses,” the assessment from the Britain’s Defense Ministry said.

       Pentagon officials, in what they call a conservative estimate, say more than 7,000 Russian troops have died in the war — far more than the 500 officially recognized by Moscow. Kyiv has so far acknowledged the deaths of 1,300 Ukrainian troops.

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       Russian President Vladimir Putin has insisted that his “special military operation” is proceeding according to plan and that he will not stop it until all of his aims are achieved.

       After Zelensky’s impassioned speech to the U.S. Congress on Wednesday asking for more aid, weapons, sanctions on Russia and a no-fly zone over Ukraine, President Biden pledged $800 million in additional help, including guns and drones but excluding a U.S.-led patrol of Ukrainian skies. Biden called Putin a “war criminal” in what administration officials said afterward was an unguarded moment. Moscow denounced the allegation as “unacceptable and unforgivable.”

       Zelensky, who has kept a daily schedule of live video appeals to foreign governments, appeared virtually Thursday before the Bundestag, the lower house of Germany’s Parliament. He asked for his country to be admitted to the European Union — a request unlikely to be granted anytime soon — and criticized Germany’s strong economic ties with Russia, including fuel imports. Berlin has not followed the U.S. in banning Russian oil and gas, although it did halt a major gas pipeline project that would have increased Russian imports.

       “We could see your willingness to continue to do business with Russia, and now we’re in the middle” of a war, Zelensky said.

       “Why does ‘never again’ not apply? What is Germany’s historic responsibility towards Ukraine today?” Zelensky said in a reference to the Holocaust, drawing a comparison between Russia’s attempted expansion into Ukraine and Germany’s invasions of its neighbors during World War II.

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       Russia may be on the verge of a debt default. Here’s what that would mean

       Russia owes billions to foreigners in dollar-denominated bonds but might fail to pay up because of the heavy sanctions on it from the war on Ukraine.

       Though it’s largely held Russian forces back from most major cities, Ukraine has suffered major losses. Millions of refugees have fled and hundreds of Ukrainian civilians have died, according to the United Nations.

       Funeral services for fallen soldiers from Kyiv and elsewhere are becoming a near-daily part of life in the western city of Lviv, which otherwise has largely remained out of Russian crosshairs.

       At a service Thursday for one of the dead at the church of St. Peter and Paul in Lviv’s Old City, an honor guard of young soldiers carried their fallen comrade’s photo to the church, then awaited the arrival of the van carrying his coffin.

       The remains of Ivan Skrypnyk, 37, were taken inside for a funeral Mass. A family friend said Skrypnyk and two others were killed when a land mine exploded and destroyed their armored vehicle outside Kyiv.

       City officials in Lviv announced that a moment of silence would be held each day at 9 a.m. to commemorate the growing numbers of victims, military and civilian.

       Bulos reported from Kyiv and Kaleem from London. Times staff writer Patrick J. McDonnell in Lviv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.